


Grotesque

by BerryShiara



Series: A New Dawn Drabbles [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Asari - Freeform, F/F, Love Triangle, Thessia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25137136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryShiara/pseuds/BerryShiara
Summary: How do you see yourself when you are missing pieces?Elektra is trying to find a way to accept her newly redefined self and gets help from someone who has no guilt over her new self.Aella gets help to let those feelings of guilt go.
Relationships: Human/Asari - Relationship, Samantha Traynor/Elektra/Aella
Series: A New Dawn Drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820863
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Grotesque

**Author's Note:**

> Special notes: Elektra was key in the defense of a bastion camp for those affected by their Heat. Because it was behind fortified lines it was not as well defended as it should have been, and Elektra was instrumental in stopping the reapers from wiping the affected camp out, she paid with the sacrifice of part of her own body, even as her elder sister paid with her life.
> 
> She was at that camp because Aella, her bond partner was in heat and unable to continue the fight on the battle field.  
> Because of this Aella feels it is her fault that Elektra lost her arm.
> 
> These are part of my Inescapable Honor continuity.

The image in the mirror was foreign… the outline unfamiliar, the colors paler than she remembered, the black matte control and connection collar where the left arm use to be was like something out of a terribly written scifi horror flick.

During a war you didn’t stop to look, didn’t have the mirrors to see… you kept moving, kept working. Often it meant success in a mission, and success meant life. But now… the war; the great moving force that had pushed her for most of her life... was gone. She was left with the discovery of what was left, the broken bones and twisted lines that remained after the reign of terror and the forced march forward.

It was hard to look at… harder to comprehend this new self image. Elektra found it difficult, and dropped her eyes from the reflection, her chin falling against her chest as she tried to bring the two visions of herself into proper alignment once more. The woman she had once been with this broken creature she had become…

\-----------

Aella came to the doorway catching sight of her partner standing before the full length mirror in nothing… Her breath caught at the image of Elektra so exposed. Her body, no longer the soft playful lines of a child, but the sensual curves of a woman… a woman who had seen her share of hell. 

From behind she could see the lines where the Brute had tore into her flesh with its long spade like claws. Dragging furrows in skin until it found an anchor on the limb that was no more. Even as it rent her limb free she tore it apart from the inside out. A feat that those who had born witness to it still talked about.

Only recently had she been fit with the control collar for a proper long term prosthetic. The reconstructive surgery still showing angry red where they had graft new skin over metal skeleton and support structures to help balance and further empower her chosen model. Aella stopped in the doorway afraid to break that moment of reconciliation. . . she stood there trapped much like the woman who rested with chin against breast.

\----------

Samantha thumped into the back of her wife making a sound of surprise as Aella became a wall in her path. 

“Wh… what?” She stared a long moment at Aella’s back expecting an answer or explanation, but the tall amazonian goddess of blue did not move. So still was she that Sam had to work really hard to catch the movement of breath as it filled Aella’s chest. 

Curious, she did her best to see around her, pressing a cheek against the doorframe near Aella’s waist, catching only a glimpse of the reflection that had rooted the huntress in place.

Elektra was a pale flesh tone, her body shaped by hard work and redefined by the carnage a war had wrought upon her… but no less exquisite. The fragrant lush locks of spun copper were no more, only a cherished memory in Aella’s mind. What remained was the baby soft new growth that the injured woman had finally allowed to let grow. The hint of her finding some peace with what was left her after the war.

Samantha pushed on Aella until the woman gave way so that she might better see their lover. 

Elektra stood naked as the day she was born before the looking glass, her body exposed for the first time in all its beautiful glory, taut and poised. The scars and healing lines a faint ghost over the powerful woman that stood before them all. Her one arm brought over Elektra's chest, fingertips exploring what her eyes did not. 

The expression of pain on El’s face urging her to come to her. Aella reached for Sam, but Samantha slipped from the huntress’s grasp. She was wrong… This was not the time to stand at a distance to let Elektra figure out how she felt about her new self image. . . 

The pads that she had been carrying haphazardly were cast to the bed freeing her arms so as to take her small wife into them. She said nothing as she slipped them around Elektra, her body flush against Elektra’s strong back, her wife’s buttocks resting in the cradle of Samantha’s hips.

There was no surprise on Elektra’s face as those luminous eyes opened up to her. No confusion or fear… only silent acceptance, and a deep gratitude. 

Reality slipped under the power that Elektra carried, their minds falling into that safe familiar place where words were not needed… and she welcomed it. It was there that Samantha saw it, saw that self image jumbled and twisted in her young wife's mind. Elektra warred with it, fought its disgusting appearance, its garish presence a looming mass, a lump of grotesque flesh that made you repulsed, feeling a deep need to recoil…

Instead of giving into that desperate need Samantha reached for that jumbled mass of flesh, opening her arms to its hulking dripping undefined mess. It came willingly.

“See what I see.” Samantha whispered, and with a gentle hand she raised Elektra’s chin, waiting until those luminous eyes found the strength to open. 

“See yourself through the eyes of love.” Samantha urged. 

\----------

Elektra felt a thrill run through her body as Samantha broke the tableau and came forward. That golden light that defined her fell as a warm cloak at her back, sunlight in a dark place as her wife wrapped arms around her. The image of herself was there in their shared mindspace when Samantha was rolled under. A picture of its lurking form. The monster she had become… and still Samantha embraced her. Without reservation she drew it near, and with gentle hands worked to reform it. 

The hands of a potter giving a vessel its shape. She did not hide the injury from Elektra, did not conceal it from her eyes as she redefined the younger woman… she gave it life as her hands caressed the sensitive cluster of capped nerves. Her mouth soft against the dark control collar as she gave herself room, pressing a million kisses against broken yet healing skin. 

\----------

Aella didn’t have to touch them to slip into that shared mindspace… she stood back and in reverent awe stood as witness as Samantha began to heal a hurt she herself couldn’t even help to staunch.

With her hands and mouth Samantha showed Elektra that though she had been torn apart she was not a monster, not a creature to be loathed and hated. Not a child to be pitied, or an invilid to be mourned… but a woman, beautiful and strong. A survivor, a fortified tower that provided shelter and protection, battle tested and still true.

\----------

As quickly as Elektra brought up an argument Samantha countered it. She would not accept this image of disgust that had been shuffling between them like a twisted and loathsome secret that none of them could air. It was poisoning parts of both her Nymph and Goddess. The stalwart woman that stood behind them frozen in her tracks watched like a lost soul on the outside of a campfire, lurking in the darkness, afraid to enter because she did not belong, and terrified she would be cast further into the night. 

Samantha raised her eyes from the images they shared and in that ethereal place where they all coexisted; pinned Aella with her gaze. “Come to us.” She said with such force that she wanted no room for the Asari’s tormented thoughts to give her reason to tuck tail and run.

\----------

Aella felt her feet break free of the roots that held her, one step then the other… slow but steady progress… When at last they fell away the urge to race forward and embrace them both was so strong she paused midstep, her eyes shifting from the still fluctuating form of Elektra to the unchanging presence of Samantha. 

“Come to us.” Samantha repeated, her voice soft, sweet, inviting. Like life itself Aella began moving once more, a drowning woman swimming for the surface. Arms heavy, lungs burning, breaking that fathomless lake her only goal. To draw breath once more...

They were dragged down to the ground, the images of the mirror lost as they found substance and solace in each other's arms. There were tears… and by the grace of a higher power… healing at last.

Cast.  
Elektra Adrasteia - Human - 5ft4in with Synesthesia called an Alítheia Mántis (Truth Seer) By the Asari. Because of the way her brain is wired she can taste sound, see scent and feel others emotions.   
  
Aella Kouris - Asari - 6ft, daughter of a krogan. Lifelong companion of Elektra, she actually got her start as guardian to the blessed child. Hand picked by the girls parents to be protector, and lover. 

Samantha Traynor - Human - 5ft6in adopted by an asari family after the war. Hero of the reaper war. A determined soul who knows what she wants, and isnt afraid to work hard for it.


End file.
